If an accounting system doesn’t have good reporting, it doesn’t matter what other bells and whistles it has. The whole purpose of an accounting system is to turn your transactions into meaningful reports for decision making and tax reporting.
Here’s what I like to see in my reports:
- Comparative: I want to see this year compared to last year. Or this month compared to the year-to-date amounts. This provides perspective to the numbers…are we improving, maintaining, or declining.
- Organized & Clean: I want to be able to group certain accounts. For example, I would want to see all the compensation expenses group together with a subtotal. I want to see all my bank accounts together…probably also with a subtotal. I don’t want to see a bunch of accounts with no activity.
- Drill Down: This is probably standard by now, but I want to easily be able to drill down into the details and then get back to the original report with only a click or two.
- Printable or Exportable: I like being able to export to Excel. I also like my printed reports to look attractive.
With GnuCash, the only one they failed at was being able to provide comparative reports. For me, this was a big one as I have to run multiple reports to get the information I should be able to get with one report.
What grade do I give GnuCash?
D Grade – I love the price. I like the concept too. The issues I have are how difficult it is to enter transactions, the shortcomings when it comes to reporting, and that it doesn’t seem to consider serving nonprofits.
Useful Links
- GnuCash: https://www.gnucash.org/
- GnuCash Manual: https://www.gnucash.org/viewdoc.phtml?rev=5&lang=C&doc=help
- GnuCash Tutorial: https://www.gnucash.org/viewdoc.phtml?rev=5&lang=C&doc=guide
You sure seem to be pushing GnuCash for some reason.
Hey Larry, I’m try to find a QuickBooks alternative. After trying GnuCash for a month, I really don’t like it.
Have you looked at APlos? I use it for our church accounting.